Joey Johnson on Burning the American Flag

Joey Johnson Burning the American Flag at the Republican National Convention. This interview took place before that convention.

Joey Johnson was recently arrested burning the US flag at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. This interview took place before that convention. Joey Johnson was the central figure in a legal and political battle with national and international reverberations around the right to burn the US flag as a form of protest. He burned the US flag at the Republican National Convention in 1984. In 1989, a Supreme Court decision, Texas v. Johnson, held that burning the flag is protected under the Constitution.

This question came up recently, on July 4th, when Bryton Mellott was arrested in Urbana, Illinois, for burning the flag and posting the pictures on Facebook. Police were later forced to release him, and no charges were filed.

Carl Dix on Police Terror and Murder, and

the Movement to Stop It

Carl Dix in Baton Rouge

Carl Dix from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Carl Dix is a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party and co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. He'll be talking about the police murders of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota - the murders, the resistance, and what do people do to stop this.

Matt Ross, Writer and Director of "Captain Fantastic"

Matt Ross is the writer and director of "Captain Fantastic," which opened early this month. It's a moving, funny, provocative film.

Ben Cash, played by Viggo Mortensen, rejects the dog-eat-dog culture of US capitalism, and raises his six children "off the grid" in the woods in Washington state. They hunt and farm all their own food. They celebrate Noam Chomsky's birthday instead of Christmas.

One reviewer said, "Ben is the sort of ideological-minded communist who hates the greater capitalist culture of America and teaches his children five languages as well as a doctrine to stick it to the man."